Always Winter but Never Christmas
by Dracoisalooker76
Summary: Effie brings Christmas to District 12 and teaches Peeta, who teaches Katniss, about the true holiday spirit. Pre-Catching Fire. For the Prompts in Panem Holiday Challenge.


_This was my contribution to this years Prompts in Panem Holiday Challenge. The prompt was: Everlark through the holiday season. The title comes from C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. Hope you all enjoy!_

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**Always Winter but Never Christmas**

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Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."

"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

-Dr. Seuss, _How The Grinch Stole Christmas!_

* * *

I'm not expecting the knock on the door.

The house is empty and quiet as usual, the only noise really being my thundering footsteps. I'm the only one here. Why else would there be any noise? The walk to the door seems to take a small eternity as my mind races on who it may be. My best guess is my father, or maybe one of my brothers, stopping in to check on me. Certainly it can't be Katniss, and Haymitch hasn't left his house since the snow fell last week.

And, just as I wasn't expecting the knock on my door, I wasn't expecting Effie Trinket to be the one knocking.

"Oh, Peeta, darling," she says, wrapping her arms around me in something that I think is meant to be a hug, but really is just her patting my shoulders and kissing the air around my cheeks. She spins around after to look out at the Victor's Village courtyard. "It is so dreary here when it snows, isn't it?"

On the contrary, I'd like to say that District 12 looks its best in the snow. Granted, it's probably the worst time of year in the district, but the white of the snow makes everything at least a little bit brighter – until it mixes in with the coal dust and makes everything a dull gray.

"Well, aren't you going to invite me in?"

I shake my head and put on a smile for her. "Where are my manners?"

"Back in the Capitol probably," she tsks. I try not to take offense. "Ah, well, we'll fix that. Grab my bags, Peeta dear. We have a lot of work to do! It's going to be a big, big, big day!"

Then she disappears into the house. I step out onto the porch and notice that Effie has brought a mountain of large luggage containers, all with wheels. I wonder how she managed to get it all from the train to the Village in one go and chuckle to myself a little at the image in my head. I can't even imagine Effie with one bag, let alone five, without laughing.

The bags are heavier than I thought too.

The door to the house twenty-five yards away opens and I look up despite telling myself to keep my head down. Katniss shuts her door, makes eye contact for a few seconds, and then puts her head down, nearly sprinting out of the Village and toward the woods. I grunt, my heart still aching from the wounds of the Games.

"Peeta! What's taking you so long, dear? We have a _lot _more to do than I was expecting!"

_Deep breaths, Peeta. It's not Effie's fault that Katniss led you on._

"Coming, Effie!"

Once all six – there was a little one hiding behind the one made of leather – of her bags are in the entryway, I walk around the bottom floor to see what Effie has managed to get her hands on. She's in the doorway to the living room, her mouth open in such a way that I'm worried her jaw is broken. She turns to me when I enter, waving her arms about.

"Where is your tree?" she exclaims. "Where are the stockings? Oh, Peeta, I thought you'd at least have that ready!"

What tree? "Effie, what are you talking about?"

"_Christmas_," she insists, staring at me as if I know what she's talking about. "You know – Santa comes down the chimney and fills the stockings of good little boys and girls. People exchange gifts with their loved ones. I sure hope that you've at least thought about what you're giving Katniss because girls are not be happy with last minute gifts. We can tell!"

She looks around my room and sighs. "Honey, be a dear and go find a tree. A nice tall one will be good in here with the high ceilings. We can put it in the corner where the awful vase is – did you pick that? It's absolutely atrocious!"

"It came with the house."

Suddenly the vase has value, now that it's not my choice but President Snow's. "We'll leave it then." She turns to me. "What are you doing? Go find a tree."

I blink a few times. "What kind of tree?"

She shakes her head and pats my shoulders, turning me around and pushing me toward the door with more force than I thought she would have. "Very funny, Peeta. Now go. I want the tree here so we can start decorating it. I'd like to have it all done by two."

She shuts the door behind me.

The only person I know who even speaks Effie is Haymitch, so I wander over to his place. He's at his kitchen table, his head on the wood, his hand holding his knife, his other hand resting near a bottle of white liquor from Ripper's stand.

"Haymitch," I say, shaking him. He doesn't even flinch. "Haymitch, get up. Haymitch. Haymitch!" I get down on my knees and put my mouth right next to his ears. "HAYMITCH!"

"Argh!" He hits his head against the table and looks up at me. "Boy, this better be good."

"Effie's here."

If I didn't know that Haymitch's eyes are wide because he thinks it's Reaping Day I'd think the look on his face would easily be the most comical thing I'd ever seen. His eyes are wide and he stands quickly, slamming his liquor on the counter and looks out the window. He sees the snow, turns to me, and glares.

"Why the hell is she here when it's snowing?"

"She just showed up unannounced," I say, just as confused as he is. "She wants me to go find a tree to put in my house."

Haymitch raises an eyebrow. "Why would you put a tree in your house?"

I shake my head. "I don't know! It's Effie! It's probably something they do in the Capitol." I collapse into one of his chairs. "Do you have any idea what kind of tree she might be talking about?"

He glares at me and grunts. "One that fits in your door," he adds sarcastically.

He's not any help. I stand up and march out of the house while Haymitch laughs at himself or maybe at the fact that I'm actually going outside to try and find a tree to appease Effie. But, then again, that's probably why Effie came to me in the first place. I'm the only one who would.

There aren't many trees inside the fence, especially when I take into account that Haymitch is right and it has to fit through my door. The only trees we really have are fruit trees and no one is going to let me cut theirs down. It's too valuable. There must be some trees of some sort on the other side of the fence and if Katniss and I were talking to each other I'd ask her about it but we're not. I head over to the fence where I know Katniss goes under and look into the woods.

My heart starts beating erratically and in the distance I see Cato with his sword, standing over me, the trees as his backdrop, poised and ready to kill me in the way that will cause the most suffering. I step back quickly, putting space between the fence and me, and try to catch my breath.

"It's not real," I mutter as I walk through the meadow. "Not real. Not real. Not real."

Finally my breathing evens and I don't take another look at the fence. At least this time going into the woods is out of the question. I grit my teeth and sit down in the snow, not caring that it's soaking through my clothes. I have no idea where I'm going to find a tree for Effie, nor do I know why she needs one and why anyone would ever put one in a house.

"Peeta? What are you doing out here in the snow?"

I look up and see Prim tugging along her goat. I see her take the thing for regular walks, although I didn't realize you needed to do that with goats. Whatever the reason, Prim is attached to the goat and it reminds me of the story Katniss told me in the cave about the time she got it for her. I wonder if any of that is real. Most of what Katniss did and said in the Games wasn't.

I haven't talked much to Prim, but at least she acknowledges my existence when we pass each other in the road. I tell my heart to stop aching. It's not Prim's fault that I'm still upset with her sister.

"Hello, Prim," I say. "I'm just..." How do I even explain what I'm doing? "I'm looking for a tree."

"A tree?" she asks, tugging her goat so she can come closer. She stands over me and gives me a smile. "What do you need a tree for?"

"Effie Trinket showed up at my house a few hours ago," I tell her. "She's doing some sort of decorating and sent me to find a tree for my living room, but she didn't say what kind of tree she wanted."

Prim thinks for a moment. "I've never heard of anyone having a tree in their house," she says.

I try to imagine bringing my parents' apple tree into my house. The thought seems absolutely ridiculous. I can't even picture what that would look like.

"Me neither."

She sits down beside me and the two of us sit in silence for a few minutes before Prim jumps up and smiles down at me. "You should just use the bushes near the front door of your house!" she exclaims. "That looks kind of like a tree and it will fit much better in your house than any tree would."

"You're a genius," I say.

We trek back up to the Victor's Village together and Prim puts her goat in its pen while I go to the back shed to grab a shovel. The bushes on either side of every porch in the Village are evergreen and squarish, they don't really look like a tree, but it must be all right for whatever Effie has planned.

Prim comes over as I'm digging the bush out and stands on my steps watching. "Does Effie come to visit you a lot?"

I shake my head and yank the bush out of its roots. "Nope. She's never come before. I didn't think I'd see her again until the Victory Tour." I hold the bush in my hands and the branches obscure my vision. "Prim, tell me where I need to go."

"Okay, up the stairs," she says. "Watch your step!"

I hear her open my door and guide me in, telling me to watch my step into the house so I don't trip. But then when I wait for her to give me more instructions I just hear a gasp. I peek out from around my bush.

I don't even recognize my house. The table in my dining room has a rectangle of red fabric right down the middle and each place is set with fancy dishes, glass drink goblets, and red and gold napkins. There are pinecones with glittered tips in expensive candleholders. I quickly lead Prim into the rest of the house and set the bush down in the doorway to the living room.

Effie has oversized socks hanging from my fireplace with candles covering the mantel. There's greenery with lights inside and red berries that sits on the mantel around the candles. I don't recognize my pillows or my area rug, or really any of the decorations in my house. Effie has completely transformed the space into something...well...ostentatious.

"Oh, good, you're back!" she says. My couch has a bunch of sparkly balls on it. "I have the ornaments all ready and – what is _that_?"

Prim smiles at her. "It's a bush," she says. "We couldn't find a tree that would fit in the house."

Effie's face has lost all its color – which wasn't a lot to begin with considering she had caked herself with white powder – and she looks as if she might vomit on my new area rug.

"A bush? A _bush_!" she cries. She looks at me pointedly. "You can't have a Christmas bush, Peeta!"

I shrug and look down at my little bush. The Capitol ensured that it was at least perfectly shaped before they planted it in front of my house. "Why not?" I ask. "Fits in here better than a tree. Right, Prim?"

She grins and nods.

Effie, however, looks like she might pop a blood vessel in her head. She pulls out a magazine from her bag and flips the page, finding a picture she likes before shoving it under my nose

"This is what a tree's supposed to look like!" she screeches. Prim covers her ears. "Not...short and square! Tall and regal and...and like that!"

I look down at the image Effie has set in front of me. Much of the room looks very similar to what Effie has done with my house. The mantel is covered with little figurines and the oversized decorative socks are in it too. The difference is that in the corner of this room is a large cone-shaped tree that I've never seen on the inside of the fence before. It's covered in beads and lights and fabrics, as well as the sparkly balls Effie has on my couch, and at the top is a big yellow star. Colorful boxes surround its base.

Effie sighs and I look away from the drawing. She actually appears disappointed, not angry but upset.

"What's wrong?" I ask, shutting the book and walking toward her.

"It's just..." she shakes her head "...it's yours and Katniss's first Christmas as victors and you have the abundance of anything you could desire for the holiday. Not to mention a home worth decorating." She sighs. "I just wanted it to be perfect for you."

I ignore the dig toward our district because, in Effie's mind, she is being sincere. Her heart is in the right place even if she's going about it differently than we would. I shake my head.

"It will be perfect," I tell her, making sure she sees me smiling before turning to Prim. "Help me put this bad boy in the corner. We've got some decorating to do."

Prim and I move the bush into the corner, stuffing it into the ugly vase so Effie doesn't have a conniption about it just sitting in a puddle of its own dirt. Once she sees that the bush doesn't look terrible – she mentions that next year she'll buy a fake tree in the Capitol and bring it to us so we don't have to _deal with this again_ – she banishes me to the kitchen with a list of foods to prepare and sends Prim to get Katniss. Prim and I share a glance, but she goes to her own house. I wonder if the two of them will be back.

Effie calls for a ham, cookies, punch, and other things I'm not prepared to make myself. The only ingredients I really have are those to make desserts so I start on those. I have one turkey that I bought and put in the freezer so I figure that will have to do instead of the other meat Effie asks for. I make a few of my own things as well. I throw in some cheese buns and use up all of my oven space.

"I'm going to go get Haymitch!" Effie trills, sticking her head in the kitchen. "Once you're finished with the dirty part, I've set some clothes Portia made for you upstairs. I just don't want you to get anything on them."

The door slams shut behind her and I roll my eyes, wiping my hands on a towel and heading upstairs. Effie has laid out a pair of black slacks and a sweater with green, red, white, black, and gold striped patterns. I slip the clothes on and marvel at how soft the sweater is and how well it fits. I still haven't gotten quite used to Portia's designs instead of my brothers' old clothes. I hear Effie come back, groaning about Haymitch being difficult and having to go back later, while I'm looking in the mirror.

I'm not entirely sure what this whole Christmas thing is all about, but Effie seems to be interested in it. I'm willing to play along with it, I suppose. It's not like I'm doing anything else tonight. And if there was anything I learned from the few weeks after the Games, it's that a happy Effie is good for everyone.

I finish up in the kitchen while Effie makes sure everything is set with the decorations. Just as I pull the turkey out, Effie calls me into the room for the tenth time to ask about the drapes she bought.

"What do you think? Green or burgundy?" she asks.

I shrug. She has already asked me my opinion on the drapes twice. "I already said I liked the green."

Effie grunts. "But, Peeta, the burgundy looks so wonderful next to the...bush."

"So pick the burgundy."

"Marvelous choice, Peeta," she cheers, ripping down the green and readying the burgundy. "I think this color just screams Christmas, don't you?"

I leave before I can respond. There's only so much Effie that I can take at a time.

"I'm going to go get the others!" Effie shouts. "We'll be here in a moment!"

To be honest, I'm not sure how this is going to go. Haymitch, Katniss, and I haven't been in the same room as each other, at least not all three of us, since the cameras left months ago. Katniss can't even look me in the eye and when I do see her I feel this odd mixture of sadness, longing, and betrayal. I feel angry and wounded. I just hope after all the work Effie has put into it that this isn't a complete disaster.

Haymitch arrives first, holding his bottle of liquor and walking around the house with face distorted with mild disgust.

"What did that monster do to your house?" I give him a look and he sits at the head of the dining table, dropping his liquor bottle next to his plate. "Almost didn't come just to piss her off, but I heard you were cooking."

The front door opens and slams and when I don't hear Effie's heels, I know who it is.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Haymitch says, smirking as he takes in Katniss's attire. Her scowl deepens and he lets out a few barks of laughter at her unpleasant mood. "Sweetheart, you clean up nice. Effie give you a bath?"

Katniss scowls at him. "Yeah, right after yours," she says. Then she looks at me with fire in her eyes. "Did you put her up to this?"

"Me?" I ask, pointing to myself. Why would she even think that? "I'm just as confused as you are! I have no idea what's going on. She just showed up."

Haymitch reaches for one of the cheese buns I have on the table and jerks his head in my direction while clearly speaking to Katniss. "She wanted him to find a tree to put in the house. I don't think any of us know where the hell her head's at," he says. He stuffs the roll in his mouth and washes it down with his liquor. "Just go with it. The better we are, the quicker she leaves."

Katniss groans just as the door opens again and we can hear Effie groaning in exasperation. "Katniss Everdeen!"

She rolls her eyes and grabs a cheese bun. "I can't handle this right now."

Effie walks into the room. "Oh, good, you're all here. Katniss, your mother and sister are coming momentarily." She taps her foot on the ground. "You could have waited for us – that's more lady-like than just barging in to a boy's house. It's improper!"

While Katniss and Effie give each other death glares, I take the time to look at the outfit that Effie brought for Katniss. It's a green dress, which complements my sweater well, with a cream cardigan over it that stands out against her olive skin. Effie somehow managed to get her into black tights and shoes. She's absolutely stunning and despite the bitterness I feel for her and what she did, I'm still very attracted to her.

"Peeta?"

I shake my head and turn to Effie. "Yes?"

"Will your family be coming?"

I look down at my shoes and shake my head. My family hasn't really been in my life since the Games, despite the fact that I always hope they'll show up unannounced like Effie had today. If I want to see them, I have to make the walk down to the bakery even though I told my dad and my brothers that they're welcome to come any time and they know my leg bothers me sometimes after long walks, like the walk to Town. But they haven't been here yet, as if being in contact with me will bring them bad luck. I shake my head again. No, my family will not be coming to whatever this is Effie is preparing.

"Well, that's good," Effie says, counting the chairs. "We didn't have enough of the good china for them anyhow."

I fall into the chair next to Haymitch, reminding myself over and over again in my head that she means well.

Prim and Mrs. Everdeen arrive not too long after that and Effie places everyone at the table. She and Haymitch sit at the two ends, while Mrs. Everdeen and Prim sit on one side and Katniss and I are put on the other. The tension is thick between us and I try not to brush her arm with mine while we eat.

We do a number on the food Effie had me prepare and I bring out the hot chocolate and cookies we have as deserts. Haymitch pours a little white liquor into the cups in front of me and Katniss while Effie is talking to Mrs. Everdeen about the drapes. I glare at him and he shakes his head.

"You two need more warming up than that cup will give you," he says. Then he leans back in his chair and looks at Prim, rubbing his arms with his hands. "Brr! Is it chilly in here to you?"

Prim smirks and nods her head. Katniss groans. I grab my mug and pour it down my throat, choking slightly with the burn of it sloshing down to my stomach. Katniss doesn't even look up, just continues staring at the plate in front of her. Effie raises her glass and hits her spoon against it and if she wasn't so involved in her own little world I'd think she was trying to diffuse the tension on our side of the table.

"Well," she says. "Christmas is the time of year to bring everyone together and I know just the thing we all need. Peeta, Katniss, Primrose, there are stockings in the living room with your names on them."

The three of us look at each other but don't move. Haymitch reaches for more liquor.

Effie clearly doesn't understand that whatever it is she's trying to celebrate with us is a Capitol holiday and not something familiar in the districts. She tuts quietly, her eyes full of judgment, and then she stands up, beckoning us to follow.

"Now," she says, when all of us get to the living room. She takes one of the oversized socks off the mantel, the silver one, and hands it to Prim. "This was always my favorite part when I was a child. The stockings just have anything and everything in them. Open it up, Primrose! Come on!"

Prim eyes Katniss, who waves her hand clearly done with everything Effie is trying to do, and then reaches her hand inside the sock. She pulls out a small bottle of pink liquid with a black cover and a hair bow in the same obnoxious pink color as the liquid. Prim holds it in her hand and then looks up at Effie.

"What is it?"

Effie looks like someone just told her that her father died. "It's nail polish!" she exclaims.

Katniss looks like she wants to kill someone and Prim just looks confused. I close my eyes and shake my head. I know what nail polish is because Katniss wore it during the parade and our interviews with Caesar. Before that I had never heard of it before and I'm not even certain Madge Undersee would even have access to it.

Katniss grinds her teeth and I turn my head. "Relax," I tell her as Prim reaches in again and pulls out a bag of multi-colored candies. "She's trying to be nice."

She turns to me, her scowl even deeper than I expected to be, and gives one shake of her head before she stands up and walks out of the room. Prim looks up from pulling out another bag of candies, this time peppermints, and Mrs. Everdeen winces. Effie just shakes her head, just as done with Katniss's lack of manners as Katniss is with her. Haymitch snorts and gives me a look. He wants me to chase after her.

I groan and excuse myself. "I'll go get her."

Katniss is sitting on the edge of the fountain at the entrance to the Village. She didn't bring a coat and she's huddled up, rubbing her arms and staring at the entrance. I've done the same thing, albeit not in the dead of winter, but I know exactly what she's doing – or at least I think I do. When I look at the entrance to the Victor's Village I see where my old life ended and when my new life started.

"So I take it you're not going to want to include this holiday in our new traditions."

She doesn't look at me, but she shakes her head. It's more than I've gotten out of her most of the night. I take a chance and sit next to her on the edge of the fountain. She shivers, but I tell myself that's from the cold and not me.

"Katniss, I can't help you if I don't know wha–"

"I didn't ask for help."

I grind my teeth so hard I think they might break. I understand that Katniss is Seam through and through – loyalty to debt there is something that just doesn't carry over into Town as much – but for once I just wish she didn't feel that way. I think we'd be in an entirely different place than we are.

So, I go at it from an angle I think she'll bite. "Well, I could use some. I'm going to rip my hair out if Effie says one more thing about the drapes in my living room."

She rolls her eyes. I take it as a good sign.

"Look, Katniss, I have no idea what this thing is that Effie's insisting we do, but she's doing it for us." She looks at me incredulously. "I'm serious. When she came she told me that she wanted to do this for us, so that we could have a perfect day, and to Effie this is it."

Katniss hits her feet into the fountain as if thinking it through. She shakes her head. "People are starving."

She's right. Winter is always hard in the district, especially in the Seam. We're both too privy to it. There are children who beg and pick through trash – Katniss was one of them once. And here we are, warm and full, watching Prim pull things she doesn't need out of some sort of decoration Effie has hanging on the mantel. And I see her point. But, as hard as it is to grasp sometimes, I see Effie's too. She's trying to share something with us and this is the only way she knows how to do it.

"How about this?" She raises her eyebrows. "Effie's little holiday seems to be about giving. Tonight we let her do her thing and tomorrow the two of us go out and do some giving of our own. You can hunt some in the woods, I'll make some bread, and maybe Haymitch will spare some of his liquor."

We both laugh at that and it's nice to hear. If she's feeling anything that I've been feeling, she hasn't laughed since we got home.

"People in the Seam don't do well with receiving," she mumbles once her chuckles die down. "They won't accept charity."

I laugh. "Trust me, I know."

We sit in silence for a minute. We really don't have anything to say to each other. Our one moment that came at Haymitch's expense is done and we've reverted back into the awkwardness that comes with our situation. I really hope this isn't what it's going to be like for the rest of our lives. The bitterness in my gut is still there, but the past few minutes have given me hope. Katniss might not love me but maybe we can at least not avoid each other.

"Effie will be gone in the morning," I say. "Let's just try to survive this night."

Katniss nods and the two of us walk back to the house. Everything that Effie had stuck in Prim's decorative sock is scattered on the floor while she and Haymitch pick at peppermints. It makes me smile. Prim can even get Haymitch to enjoy himself.

"Ah, Peeta, Katniss!" Effie says, standing up and taking the other two socks off the mantel. "You still have yours!"

I reach for Katniss's shoulder and give it a squeeze to remind her of what I told her at the fountain. She's already tense, but she lets out a deep breath and grits her teeth.

"Thank you, Effie," I say. Katniss nods but doesn't say anything.

She hands us each one of the socks and then claps to herself, watching with joy as we reach inside. I have a couple paintbrushes, some candies like Prim, a pair of socks with trees on them, and a variety of other small things that I have no idea what they are and can only assume are the latest Capitol trends. Katniss seems to be pulling similar things out of hers.

Until she pulls out a piece of a plant.

"What's that?" Prim asks.

Effie giggles wildly. "It's mistletoe. You hang it above your door and whoever gets caught under it has to kiss."

Katniss drops it like she's been burned and Haymitch stands up from his seat, pocketing it with a pointed look in our direction. "This might come in handy," he tells us sarcastically, but I wonder if it's not meant to be a joke.

The train doesn't leave until morning, but Effie has her room onboard which has everything she could possibly want, so she doesn't ask to stay at any of our homes. I'm thankful for that because I'm sure Katniss would have exploded if she asked.

That night I can't sleep. It's not unusual – I haven't had a good night's sleep since before the reaping. I get maybe an hour before my nightmares take over and I have to go downstairs. My house is still decorated in Effie's holiday décor. She insisted I keep it up until the twenty-fifth, which is apparently the correct date of the holiday, she just had to come now because the supply train only comes once a month, if that.

I make myself some tea and start baking a few loaves of bread. By the time the sun has risen and through my window I can see Katniss open the door to her house to escort Prim to school, the first round is done and I've started on some cookies. I need to do something today to keep my mind away from my demons and since I have a new shipment of everything in my pantry, Merry Christmas from Effie, I plan on using as much of the old stuff as I can.

The celebration didn't go as poorly as I thought it would, to be honest. Effie gave Haymitch some liquor, Mrs. Everdeen a picture frame, and Prim a doll that looks just like her sister – "It's all the rage in the Capitol, my darling." Katniss got some sort of scarf that covers about half of her body and I got a new sketchpad. Prim's the one who thought it might be nice to give something to Effie in return and ran across the street to grab a bit of goat cheese and crackers. After Prim told her that it came from the same goat that Katniss gave her, the one in the story Katniss told me about in the cave, Effie loved it and told Katniss that she loved that story. It made her cry.

But now Effie's gone, I'm stuck with all this awful decoration, and Katniss will most definitely revert back into herself. And I find that, even though I'm still upset about what she did in the Games, I mind. I don't want her to go. I had fun with her last night, playing the card games Haymitch taught us while Effie told Prim a story about a reindeer with a red nose. Katniss may not love me but she did save my life, and my wounded heart is getting in the way of us even having a chance at any sort of friendship.

So when I see her come back from walking Prim to school, I go meet her in the courtyard.

"Katniss!"

She startles, clearly not expecting me. "Hi, Peeta."

I meet her halfway between our houses, shivering slightly from the cold. Katniss has on the big jacket Cinna sent last month and the matching one Portia made for me is hanging by the door forgotten in my haste to reach Katniss before she disappeared inside.

She looks just as exhausted as I am and I wonder if she's having trouble sleeping too.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," I start. She gives me a confused look. "I understand now that you weren't trying to lead me on, you were trying to save our lives and I'm grateful for that. I was thinking that maybe if you could forgive me for being a jerk then maybe we could be friends."

Katniss shakes her head. "You weren't being a jerk."

"Well, whatever I was doing I wasn't being nice to you," I tell her, remembering how spiteful I was those first few days after the train pulled into the station. "So, what do you say?"

She shuffles and looks unsure of herself. "I'm not very good at friends."

I shrug and nod toward my house. "We'll start simple," I say. "I'm making cookies that I was going to take over to the lower school classes later today. Effie's little holiday inspired me to do some giving myself. Want to join me?"

She thinks about it, looks over her shoulder at her own house, and kicks a little snow on the pavement. Then she gives one small nod, so small I almost miss it and wonder if she wanted me to even see it. But I did see it so I turn around and walk her to my door.

"So, Katniss," I say, opening the door and letting her in. "What's your favorite color?"

* * *

_Thanks for reading! Go check out the Prompts in Panem tumblr page for some great holiday themed stories!_


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